


Cat’s in the Cradle

by spensierata



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Fluff, Season/Series 11, just a lil father son bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 09:52:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14017662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spensierata/pseuds/spensierata
Summary: Mulder’s first real conversation with William.





	Cat’s in the Cradle

Static cuts through the quiet, a white noise stirring in the air between them. Mulder’s nails dig into the leather steering wheel. Jackson shifts uncomfortably in the passenger seat, as though the plush leather was cold unyielding granite. He caves, reaches over and switches the stereo off, leaving only the two of them and their sixteen years of radio silence.

And Jackson’s growling stomach, which loudly gives the game away. “You hungry?” Mulder asks his son, and curses himself. That’s the first thing he’s ever asked his son.

“Uh, yeah. Kinda,” he replies. An understatement, his belly kindly reminds them. “Two months of gas station sandwiches don’t exactly keep you going,”

“Sorry, gas station sandwiches are all we’ve got. I have something in the glove compartment there,” He says prying his hand from the wheel to gesture in that general direction. “Help yourself,”

Mulder had stocked up root beer and iced tea, egg salad and blt and crackers and a protein bar. He was overcompensating, he hopes it isn’t too transparent.

“I, uh, didn’t know what you would like, I don’t know if you have allergies or if you’re vegan… Hell, all the kids are vegan these days - oh, I didn’t get anything sweet…”

“Is this me?” Jackson asks, though it’s not really a question, holding up a polaroid of a tiny ginger baby in the arms of a tiny ginger woman. His eyes, Mulder’s eyes, are stating it. This is me.

“Yeah,” Mulder clears his throat. Does that bother him? A picture of him as a baby in a stranger’s car? A picture of him as a baby in a stranger’s arms?

Jackson’s eyes turn back to the photograph, Mulder’s turn back to the road. “What is she like? My uh… her… you know…”

“She, Scully…”

“Scully?” Jackson’s eyes flicker to the gold band hanging from the rear view mirror. His brows furrowed in a way that reminds him so much of Scully he half expects him to start disputing the existence of extraterrestrials. “You’re not on first name basis?”

“Not exactly, we never went by our first names. Well I didn’t. Scully respected that. It got to a point where Fox and Dana didn’t really fit anymore…”

“Fox? Okay, I get it. Say no more,” Mulder laughs. His kid was a goddamn punk. “Dana, though, that’s normal,”

Mulder cracks a wistful smirk, “Well, Scully’s something else,”

“That’s… cool,” Jackson says softly, holding his up mother to the light. Studying and deciphering, as if it were a snapshot of the loch ness monster, and he couldn’t quite believe that it was real.

“Cool. Yeah. She is cool, William,”

“Jackson,” he says a bit too quickly, dashing the moment like a slash of a tire, the air is gone in an instant.

“I’m sorry. Jackson.”

They’re quiet for a moment, until Jackson finally speaks, his voice soft, curious as the child Mulder has never met. “Why William?”

“It was my fathers name and her fathers name,” was Mulder’s answer, he gruffly clears his throat. “We were never exactly traditional but I guess your mom… Scully… She felt like doing something right,”

Mulder turns, their eyes finally meet. “I hope you know that,” He says, “That you were always something right,”

Jackson opens his mouth as if to say something more, but his stomach shouts over him, reminding them abruptly of what he had been snooping for in the first place. Mulder nods towards the glove compartment, he dives back in and finds some buried treasure.

“Hey! Sunflower seeds,”

“You like ‘em?” Mulder asks with earnest attempt to keep it nonchalant.

“Love ‘em,” Jackson grins. Mulder can’t help but return a beaming smile.

“They’re all yours,”


End file.
